Electrical contact apparatus.



No. 842,852. PATENTED FEB. 5, 1907.

J. G. BOYD. I

ELECTRICAL CON TAGT APPARATUS. APPLIOATION nmm'nm 1a. 1905.

s SHEETSSHEBT 1.

THE NORRIS PETERS co., WASHINGTON, D. cv

v PATENTED' FEB. 5, 190m J. c. BOYD. ELECTRICAL CONTACT APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED 1330.16. 1906.

a sums-mun.

ATTORNEY NORRIS PETERS to" wnsumcro PATENTBD FEB. 5, 1907 J. c. BOYD.ELBGTRIGAL GONTAGT APPARATUS.

APPLIOATIOH FILED D110. 16. 1905.

3 SHEETS8HEET 3.

mvnnon 1n: "cams PETERS co. WASHINGTON. A c,

PATET OFFICE.

JAMES CHURCHILL BOYD, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

ELECTRICAL CONTACT APPARATUS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 5, 1907.

Application filed December 16, 1905. Serial No. 291,961.

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that 1, JAMES CHURCHILL BOYD, a citizen of the UnitedStates, and a resident of the borough of Brooklyn, city of New York,county of Kings, and State of New York, have invented certain new anduseful Improvements in Electrical Contact Apparatus, of which thefollowing is a specification.

My invention relates to electrical contact apparatus, and moreparticularly to such apparatus as is used on cars on electrical railwaysemploying a third-rail system. Its object is to provide a simple andefficient apparatus which may be used in connection with two or morethird rails which are placed at different relative positions to therunningtracks of the road.

I will now describe my invention in the following specification andpoint out the novel features thereof in claims.

Referring to the drawings, Figure 1 shows in side elevation a portion ofa railwaycar with my invention attached thereto and with two adjoiningportions of third-rails in different relative positions to therunning-tracks also shown. Fig. 2 is a plan view of the above-mentionedthird rails and also shows an arrangement which I use for automaticallychanging the position of the contact apparatus when the car whichcarries it passes the place where these diflerent third rails adjoineach other. Fig. 3 is a perspective View of a small portion of a part ofthe apparatus shown in Fig. 2, showing a portion of the supporting-beam15 and the angle-irons 17. Fig. 4 is a side elevation of thecontact-shoe and its supporting parts, the latter made according to myinvention. Fig. 5 is an end view of the parts shown in Fig. 4 with thecontact-shoe resting upon one of the third rails. Fig. 6 is a sectionalview of the same parts shown in Fig. 5 with the parts in this case shownin a diiferent position and with the contact-shoe resting upon anotherof the third rails. The section of this figure is taken through the lineA B of Fig. 4. Fig. 7 is an end view of stationary brackets 30 and 32,showing how these parts are fastened together. Figs. 8 and 9 are smalldetail views showing the construction of an arrangement of the releasingmember 45 and the trigger 46 shown in the preceding figures. Fig. 10 isa side elevation of a modification of my invention. Fig. 11 is an endview of the parts shown in Fig. 10 with the contact-shoe resting upononeof the third rails. Fig. 12 is a sectional end view of the same parts ina dif ferent position with the contact-shoe resting upon another of thethird rails, the section being taken through line A B of Fig. 10.

Like characters of reference represent corresponding parts in all of thefigures.

1O designates a railroad-car of any preferred design or construction. 1111 are its wheels, and 12 one of the rails over which the car isarranged to run.

13 is a third rail or power-rail connected to a suitable source ofelectrical supply. 14 is another such third rail at a different relativeposition to the running-track.

15 is a support for a contact-shoe, which is arranged to carry the shoewhen'it is being moved by the car from one of the third rails to theother.

16 is a device arranged to shift the position of the contact-shoe fromone of the third rails to another.

20 is a contact-shoe of a well-known design and construction. It isdesigned to be carried by the car by a supporting-beam 21. The ends ofthis supporting-beam are provided with brackets 22 22 of a specialdesign, which are supported upon links 23 23 and 24 24, which arepivotally connected to stationary supporting-brackets 30 upon the car.When the parts are in this position, (shown in the left-hand portion ofFig. 1 and in Figs. 2 and 5,) the contact-shoewill rest upon the thirdrail 13. The springs 25 are provided for the purpose of pressing thisshoe upon the third rail and for connecting the contactshoe to thesupporting beam 21. These springs are connected to the supportingbeam bya cross-arm 26, which is rigidly connectcd to contact-arms 27 27. Thelower ends of these upright arms are provided with slots which serve asa guide for the shoe 20 and in which the upper portions 20 20 of thecontact-shoe play.- This is a well-known construction and needs nofurther description here.

28 is an electrical conductor which is arranged to carry the currentfrom the third rail, which passes through the contact-shoe 20 to theelectrical equipment on the car. As this electrical equipment forms nopart of the present invention, it is not shown in the drawings. Thestationary supportingbrackets 30 30 may be attached to the body of thecar by means of bolts 31 31 and a supporting-piece 32 upon the caritself. Where the stationary bracket 30 comes against thesupporting-piece 32, their edges may be corrugated, as shown at 33, sothat the height of sunporting-bracket 30 may be adjusted at wilReferring now to Fig. 5, it may be seen that the links 23 and 24, whichconnect the supporting-beam 21 to the car, hold the contact-shoe 20 inthe proper position for it to bear upon the third rail 13. The partswill be held in this position by their own weight and will remain inthis position so long as the car runs along the part of its track whichis provided with a third rail which is in the position designated in thedrawings at 13. The third rail may of course be provided upon either orboth sides of the running-track 12. Now when it is desired to run thecar from a part of its running-track 12 which is provided with a thirdrail, such as 13, onto another portion of the running-track 12 which isprovided with athird rail, such as 14, it is desired to change theposition of the contactshoe 20 and its supporting parts so that it willbear upon the third rail 14. This new position of the parts is shown inFig. 6.

It is the purpose of this invention to provide a simple and efficientdevice for causing the motion of the car to automatically shift theposition of these parts. For this purpose the supporting-beam 15 and theshifting device 16, which are illustrated in Figs. 1 and 3, areprovided. As the car moves over this portion of its track thecontact-shoe 20 will first run off from the third rail 13 onto the beam15. The end of this beam which is next to the third rail 13 is slightlyinclined, so that the contact-shoe 20 and its supporting parts will belifted thereby against gravity and the compression of thesupporting-spring 25 into the position designated in dotted lines inFig. 5 at 20 This will raise the contact-shoe above the angleirons 1717. A further compression of the supporting-spring of the contact-shoewill have the effect of swinging the links 23 and 24 farther about theirpivots and causing all of the movable supporting parts of contactshoe 20to be raised into the positions in which they are shown in Fig. 6. Thebeam 15 is so shaped that as it carries the contactshoe from third rail13 to third rail 14 it will hold the contact-shoe 20 above and clear ofthe angle-irons 17 17. This beam 15 may be constructed, if desired, ofconducting material in order to carry current from the power-rails tothe electrical equipment on the car while the contact-shoe is beingcarried from one of the power-rails to the other; but I prefer to makeit of non-conducting mate rial, such as wood.

The two angle-irons 17 17 may be securely attached to asupporting-timber 18 and placed at the desired angle or curve inrelation to the running-track to assist in shifting the parts whichsupport the contact-shoe. The movement of the car over a portion of itstrack opposite to this shifting arrangement will carry a portion 22 ofthe bracket 22 which extends downwardly to a position preferably lowerthan the top of the third rails betw een the angle-irons 17 17, as shownin Fig. 5. The angle or curve at which these angle-irons 17 17 are setwill cause one of them to push the portion 22 over toward 1 the body ofthe car 10 and assist the supporting-beam 15 in swinging the links 23and 24 and their connected parts and moving all of the movable parts ofthe supports for the contact-shoe upward into the positions in whichthey are shown in Fig. 6. A hook 40 will at the same time be moved overa stationary catch 41 and will lock the various parts in their positionsuntil further acted upon in a manner which will be described later. T hehook 40 is a part of the lockingpiece 42, the upper portion of which isextended up through bracket 22 and is provided with a spring 43, whichtends to push this locking-piece and the hook 40 downward. The lower end44 of the lockingpiece 42 is shaped as shown at 44, so that it carriesupon it the sliding releasing-bar 45, which is preferably an integralpart of the locking-piece 42. The lower end of the releasing-bar 45rests upon a trigger 46, which is pivoted at 47 to thesupporting-bracket 22. Then the car is run in the opposite way or whenit is run onto another section of the track 12, which is provided againwith a third rail in the position of the third rail 13, the operationwill be reversed. T he contactshoe will then run onto the beam 15 andwill be supported thereby. Now as the portion 22 of the bracket 22 againenters into the trough formed by the angle-irons 17 17 one of theangle-irons will push the portion 22 away from the car. Its effect w illbe, however, to first press against the pivoted trigger 46 until itassumes the position designated by dotted lines in Fig. 6. This willpush the sliding releasing-bar 45 upward and will thereby raise thelocking-piece 42 against the compression of spring 43v until the hook 40is raised above the stationary lockingpiece 41. This will leave thevarious movable parts free to be moved upward and downward by thecombined eflect of one of the angle-irons and by the weight of the partsuntil they again assume the positions in which they are shown in Fig. 5.

The detail view shown in Fig. 8 is a sectional plan view of some of theparts shown in Fig. 6, the section being taken through line E F of Fig.6 and shows the trigger 46 and its pivot 47 and also shows how theseparts are attached to the lower portion of the frame 22.

In the detail shownin Fig. 9 it may be seen that the sliding releasingmember 45 may be held in its position by a small angle-iron 48, whichmay be bolted to the bracket 22 by means of a bolt 49.

In the modification shown in Figs. 10, 11, and 12 the contact-shoe 20 isof a different form, but constructed and operated after the sameprinciples. In this case the contactshoe 20 is supported directly uponthe links 23 and 24. These links are in this case arranged to hold thecontact-shoe 20 upon the contact-rail 13 when they are in their lowerposition and to be held in this position by means of springs 50, whichare connected to an extension 23 of the link 23 and to a stationary part51 on the car. The contactshoe 20 is arranged to be pivoted at 52 to thelower links 23 23 and to be pressed against the power-rails by springs53. The locking-piece 42 is somewhat different in shape in this case andis arranged to hook into a stationary strap 41 to hold the parts intheir raised position after they have been pushed into this position bythe movement of the car.

The operation of this device is similar to that of the other form. Inthis case, however, the contact-shoe 20 is provided with a projectinglug 20 and when the contactshoe 20 runs up on the supporting-beam 15this projecting lug 20 will strike against the hub of the locking-piece42, so that any further upward movement of the contact-shoe will betransmitted to its supporting parts, and they will be raised by thesupportingbeam 15 until the locking-piece 42 is brought into engagementwith the stationary strap 41. In the opposite direction an angle-ironsimilar to one of those shown at 17 17 may be arranged to press againstthe dependent lug 46 and to release the hook of the lockingpiece 42 fromthe stationary strap 41, and then the springs 50 will move the links andthe contact-shoe 20 back to their original positions.

This invention is not necessarily limited to its use in connection withtwo power-rails of different relative positions to the runningtrack, asit is but a matter of mechanical design to arrange the parts to be movedinto the proper operative positions for the contactshoe to bear uponpower-rails in more than two relative positions to the running-track. Ibelieve it is broadly new to support by parallel links a contact-shoewhich is arranged to be automatically moved from one position to anotherdirectly by the movement of the car and to arrange means for locking thesupporting members of the shoe in different operative positions I haveshown more than one construction of this invention, and of course it maybe made in many other ways than those herein shown and described.

I have shown and described the powerrails 13 and 14 as constructed in awell-known manner, but they may of course be electrical conductors ofany desired form or construction. I

That 1 claim is i 1. A car, a running-track therefor, .a contact-shoe,links arranged to connect the icontact-s'hoe to the car, an adjustablebracket for connectingthe links to the car, a movable bracket forconnecting the links to the contact-shoe, a dependent projection fromsaid movable bracket, a plurality of power-rails in different relativepositions to the runningtrack, a fixed guide near said running-trackarranged to engage with said dependent projection and to automaticallyshift the contact-shoe from one of said power-rails to the other of saidpower-rails by the movement of the car.

2. A car, a running-track therefor, a contact-shoe, links arranged toconnect the icontact-shoe to the car, an adjustable bracket forconnecting the links to the car, a movable bracket for connecting the'links to the contact-shoe, a dependent projection from said movablebracket, a fixed guide near said running-track arranged to engage withsaid dependent projection and to shift the contactshoe from one of saidpower-rails to theother of said power-rails by the movement of the car,and a hook arranged to lock said movable bracket in its shiftedposition.

3. A car, a running-track therefor, a cont act-shoe, links arranged toconnect the contact-shoe to the car, an adjustable bracket forconnecting the links to the car, a movable bracket for connecting thelinks to the contact-shoe, a dependent projection from said ICO movablebracket, a fixed guide near said running-track arranged to engage withsaid dependent projection and to shift the contact-shoe from one of saidpower-rails to the other of said power-rails by the movement of the car,a hook arranged to lock said movable bracket in its shifted position anda spring arranged to actuate said hook in'one direction.

4. A car, a running-track therefor, a contact-shoe, links arranged toconnect the contact-shoe to the car, an adjustable bracket forconnecting the links to the car, a movable bracket for connecting thelinks to the contact-shoe, a dependent projection from said movablebracket, a fixed guide near said running-track arranged to engage withsaid dependent projection and to shift the contactshoe from one of saidpower-rails to the other of said power-rails by the movement of the carin one direction, a hook arranged to lock said movable bracket in itsshifted position, a spring arranged to actuate the hook in onedirection, a trigger arranged to release the hook, said guide alsoarranged to engage with the trigger and to release the hook against theactlon of the spring and to shift the movable bracket back to 1ts formerposition by IIO- i the movement of the car inthe opposite di rection.

5. A car, a running-track therefor, a movable bracket, links arranged toconnect the movable bracket to the car, an adjustable bracket forconnecting the links to the car, a contact-shoe loosely connected tosaid movable bracket, a spring connectin the contact-shoe and themovable bradket, a dependent projection from said movable bracket, afiXed guide near said runningtrack arranged to engage with saiddependent projection and to shift the contact-shoe from one of saidpower-rails to the other of said power-rails by the movement of the carin one direction, a hook arranged to lock said movable bracket in itsshifted position, a

spring arranged to actuate the hook in one direction, a trigger arrangedto release the hook, said guide also arranged to engage with the triggerand to release the hook against the action of the spring and to shiftthe movable bracket back to its former position by the movement of thecar in the opposite direction, and a supporting-beam for holding thecontact-shoe during said shifting.

6. A car, a running-track therefor, a contact-shoe carried by the car, apower-rail parallel to the running-track and op osite one portion oftherunning-track, another powerrail parallel to the running-trackandopposite another portion of the running-track, said power-rails beingin different relative positions to the running-track, means forpositively holding the contact-shoe in operative position over one ofthe power-rails, a looking device for holding the contact-shoe inoperative position over the other of the powerrails, a guide arranged toshift the contactshoe from the first of said operative ositions and tocause the contact-shoe to be ocked in the second of said operativepositions when the car is running in one direction and to unlock and toshift the contact shoe from the second of said operative positions tothe first of said operative positions when the car is run in theopposite direction.

7. A car, a running-track therefor, a contact-shoe, links arranged toconnect the contact-shoe to the car, a power-rail parallel to therunning-track and opposite one portion of the running-track, anotherpower-rail parallel to the running-track and opposite another portion ofthe running-track, said power-rails being in different relativepositions to the running-track, means for positively holding thecontact-shoe in operative position over one of the power-rails, meansfor locking the contact-shoe and thereby holding the contact-shoe inoperative position over the other of the ower-rails, and a guidearranged to positive y move and cause the links to be locked and therebyhold the contact-shoe in operative position over one of the power-railswhen the car is moved in one direction, and to unlock and to move thelinks back and thereby shift the contactshoe into its operative positionover another of the power-rails when the car is run in the otherdirection.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in thepresence of two subscribing witnesses.

JAMES CHURCHILL BOYD.

Witnesses:

BRONSON H. SMITH, ERNEST W. MARSHALL.

